What’s Old is New…

An article on The Last Watchdog points out that the act if monitoring employee activities was not brought about by increased use of FaceBook or Twitter. It is in fact a time honored practice.

Old vs New: The original Mustang GT500 and the new, 2010 GT500.

More important then the practice is the reason. It is not to see how productive an employee is or is not – a non-productive employee is a management problem. No amount of technology will fix a lazy or disgruntled employee. No, The reason is to protect the company from both a business and security perspective.

While the practice of monitoring may be time honored, the practice of notifying users is not. Indeed many users do not know the boundaries…and they should.

Companies should create and enforce policies that make it clear to employees what their duties are, what the employer’s obligations are and how they each affect the other. A little education can go a very long way to overcoming the distrust that arises when employers try a stealth approach to this very sensitive issue.

Indeed. It is a two way street and education can go a long way–particularly with newer employees who may not know exactly what the employer is monitoring…or why.